Anti Alliased Edges using Spot Colours

DG
Posted By
David_Gerrard
Oct 5, 2006
Views
347
Replies
8
Status
Closed
I work in the pre press department of a print packaging company and one of our clients regularly sends their files through with the main product headings created in Photoshop. Having large text (vector) images created in photoshop is generally not a problem as long as they stay part of the CMYK image as there are a couple of methods which can be applied to remove the pixilized edges of curved images if they are CMYK (Utilizing layers).
My problem is the headings are to print as specials (Reflex Blue). Does anyone know how I can smooth the edges of text etc. when the image is in a spot channel?

Regards
David
Related Tags
color edge spot

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AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Oct 5, 2006
Could you remove the spot-color text from the Photoshop file; place the Photoshop file in InDesign: and re-create the spot-color text and as real type in InDesign?
L
Lesh
Oct 5, 2006
Image>Adjustments>Threshold
I’m assuming you want to *remove* the anti-aliasing, but after reading your post a few times through I’m not sure.
DG
David_Gerrard
Oct 6, 2006
Thanks Ann,

I can do that for 2 of the 6 images but unfortunately it won’t work for all as some of the files are too complex to remove the images from photoshop and place them in exactly the same position in another program.

Lesh,

Thanks for you reply, Yes I am trying to remove the anti aliasing (rough pixilized edges) on curved images. I will output some film using the Image>Adjustments>Threshold method you advised. It doesn’t look too good on the screen but it is worth taking it to film to see if there is an improvement.

David
JS
John_Slate
Oct 6, 2006
It doesn’t look too good on the screen but it is worth taking it to film to see if there is an improvement

Don’t waste your time/film.

It will look bad.

Antialiasing is intended to make smooth edges when file resolution is way less that printer resolution, like most photographic images.

An Un-antialiased curved edge @ 300ppi will look very choppy.

For an Un-antialiased edge to print smooth it would need to be at the very least 1/4 printer resolution, like a 600ppi 1-bit tiff printing on a 2400dpi imagesetter.

The best would be vector data, obviously.

Your problem is that spot colors in Photoshop multichannel or DCS images only exist as channel data, and it would be impractical to increase photo resolution just for the spot elements, so the best solution might be to set the type elements in InDesign, like Ann suggested.

I remember Mike Ornellas had a trick for getting spot color as vector from Photoshop. I know you can do it with duotone mode and saving as EPS including vectors, but I think he was doing something else, maybe with vector masks? Anyone remember? Mike?
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Oct 6, 2006
Here’s a reference to Mike’s original thread:
Ann Shelbourne, "Pasting vector art into Spot Channel in CS2" #1, 7 Apr 2006 1:39 pm </cgi-bin/webx?14/0>
MO
Mike_Ornellas
Oct 6, 2006
geez, you guys actually save stuff?

heheehehe
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Oct 7, 2006
Only the good stuff … .
🙂
DG
David_Gerrard
Oct 9, 2006
Thanks Guys, I’ll give it a go. (Let you know how it goes)

Regards
David

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